On the Prowl

Cats Makes Its East Bay Debut at Encinal High.

By Erin Rech
Photograph by Lane Hartwell

Ignore the Chinese zodiac appointment of the dog as the star of the moment--2006 will almost certainly be the year of the cat. Twenty-five years after Andrew Lloyd Webber's famed musical opened at the New London Theatre in England, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization has released the amateur performance rights for Cats, which will make its East Bay debut this March when Old Deuteronomy, Rum Tum Tugger and the rest of the Jellicles prowl the main stage of Encinal High School.

Students learned how to embrace their inner feline under the direction of drama teacher Bob Moorhead. At the first dance rehearsal, the actors crawled, clawed and purred around the floor of their rehearsal space, transported far beyond the earthly world of the empty school cafeteria. "I think the challenge for some students is being able to free themselves to play a cat," says Moorhead, who applied for the rights to Cats in 2005, hoping to provide actors with a chance to put on their dancing shoes. "The various musical styles give students wonderful opportunities, and the makeup gives students great experience in an aspect of theater they haven't had in previous productions."

For the physical transformation, Moorhead relied on professional makeup and costume artist Margarette Mosley. Mosley, who created the visual scheme after reading Webber's original inspiration, T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, trained the students to create their own makeup masks--ranging from Harlequin to African--through the Jet Setter after-school program. The costumes, custom-tailored by volunteer parents and students, explore the characters' animal and human traits: a domestic cat in an apron; the more sophisticated cats in gowns and tuxedos with fur accents.

To get the cats prancing, Moorhead turned to his wife, Amy, whose vast dance experience includes five years in the cast of the San Francisco production of The Phantom of the Opera. "Kids don't think they can't do it," says Amy Moorhead, who was charged with getting all the actors--experienced and amateur--in sync. "They're freer than older performers because they'll try anything."

The choreography was demanding, and sore muscles and joints became the standard in the early weeks of rehearsal. "It's not just about dancing and running around on stage, there's more to it," says Jack Newton, a senior starring as the show's villain, Macavity. "It uses different muscles than other shows--more limb-oriented movements."

After eight weeks of grueling rehearsals, the cast is eager to take the stage and make East Bay history. "After having premiered the student version of Les Miserables three years ago and experiencing the excitement surrounding that production, I knew that presenting the premiere of Cats would likely have the same impact on the students and the entire school community," says Moorhead.